UK Registration Plate History

1903: The Motor Car Act required vehicles to display a registration number. The first plates issued were made up of one letter with one number; A1 was first made available by London County Council. These had black backgrounds with white, grey or silver text.

Mid-1930s: By this time, registrations were exhausted and three letter-three number plates were introduced.

Mid-1950s: Registrations were reversed to three numbers-three letters.

1963: For the first time, a unique letter was introduced to signify the year of registration.

1968: The change of age-identifiers was moved to August 1 as opposed to annually at year-end.

1973: Reflective number plates were made compulsory for new vehicles - with black letters on a white background at the front and a yellow background at the back.

1998: The government announced the age-identifier would change every six months in March and September.

2001: The current format is enforced, including font, area code and age-identifier.

2018: All vehicles manufactured before January 1978 (40 years ago) were permitted to display the older-style black plates.

The consultation was announced ahead of the UK hosting the world’s first Zero Emission Vehicle Summit on Tuesday 11 September.

Nations from around the world are expected to come together to develop the uptake of low-emission transport.

Chris Grayling, Transport Secretary, said: "The UK has a proud history of leading the world in technological advances and that is no different for ultra low-emission vehicles, where we are at the forefront of innovation and testing.

"This new cleaner, greener transport has the potential to bring with it cleaner air, a better environment and stronger economies for countries around the world.

"Adding a green badge of honour to these new clean vehicles is a brilliant way of helping increase awareness of their growing popularity in the UK, and might just encourage people to think about how one could fit into their own travel routine."

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Elisabeth Costa, Director at The Behavioural Insights Team, added: "We support efforts to increase awareness of the numbers of clean vehicles on our roads.

"Simple changes based on behavioural science can have a big impact.

"Green plates would be more noticeable to road users, and this increased attraction can help normalise the idea of clean vehicles, highlighting the changing social norms around vehicle ownership."